BASN/SASCA Alumni Association

Formed in August of 1998 as the Solano County BASN Alumni Association, it eventually evolved into the present day BASN/SASCA Alumni Association. The primary purpose of this association is to support the addict convict still struggling with the disease of addiction and parole obligations. Originally started by three individuals that had completed a BASN mandated treatment episode and whose lives had been positively impacted by this new way of life; today we have over a hundred and twenty-five individuals that are no longer on parole and are not only gainfully employed but have reconciled with families and are realizing the American dream of home ownership and taxes!

The Alumni participate in Fighting Back’s Neighborhood Revitalization program activities each year as well as Vallejo’s Neighborhood Housing Paint The Town. Every summer the Alumni sponsor clean and sober activities such as softball games on Sundays in South Vallejo. We serve hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and soft drinks. Families are not only invited, they are encouraged to attend. All this to show that it is possible to have a good time, without using drugs or alcohol.

The Alumni Association meets the last Wednesday of each month in the Joseph Room of the John F. Kennedy Library at 6:45PM. If you have a history of incarceration and substance abuse and feel that you might benefit from talking to others that had these very same issues, please feel free to join us.

BASN members in front of the White House 2004

From the rooms and ranks of the Alumni Association, comes the next phase: Health Advocates Project

With the assistance of Fighting Back Partnership, the Alumni Association was able to access a grant from the California Endowment in May of 2003.

At its heart, the BASN Health Advocate Project is a leadership development project for ex-offenders who are serious about their rehabilitation. The Project will train ex-offenders as Peer Health Advocates. They will be living in and be assigned to transitional housing in five revitalized neighborhoods in Vallejo that are the target geographic areas for Fighting Back Partnership’s Neighborhood Revitalization Program. The Health Advocates will carry out two types of activities in these neighborhoods: 1) peer support for individuals-new parolees who are in the critical transition period returning from prison; 2) continuing support for the target revitalization neighborhoods and their neighborhood associations to help them maintain the new standards that have been developed as a result of the revitalization work.

The Peer Health Advocates will receive special training to enable them to provide health information and education to criminal offenders who are re-entering the Vallejo community from state prison facilities. They will also receive special training that will allow them to extend the work of the neighborhood revitalization. This follow-up work will demonstrate to the local neighborhoods that ex-offenders can be community assets rather than simply neighborhood liabilities. Finally, the Project will develop, implement and evaluate the provision of transitional housing to be made available to Health Advocates willing and able to take part in stabilization efforts in revitalized neighborhoods where a combination of factors-health status, criminal status, and poverty-have converged in the past to make these disproportionately impacted neighborhoods.